Category: Reports

Israeli Army in Hebron Violates Israeli High Court Order – Again


The back entrance to the Abu Haykal family’s home. The Israeli military is now confining them to this rather than the front of the their home.

by ISM Hebron and Tel Rumeida Project

The Hani Abu Haykal family, which lives directly opposite the Tel Rumeida settlement in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Al-Khalil (Hebron), has received a written military order declaring the street in front of their house a closed military zone until November 3rd, Abu Haykal told human rights workers today. The order prevents Abu Haykal and the nine other members of his household from using the main gate to their home, forcing them instead to use a rough, roundabout path through olive groves to reach their jobs, shopping, or anything else.

The order is in direct contradiction with an order previously issued by the Israeli High Court allowing Hani Abu Haykal and his family to use the street. The family’s lawyer has gone to court in an effort to have the recent order lifted. Hani said he has also asked the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) for help with the problem, and monitors from TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron) claim their group is also trying to get the order lifted. For now, though, the family is complying with it.

According to Hani Abu Haykal, the order, in Hebrew and Arabic, with an accompanying map, was delivered at around 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 6th by an officer from the Israeli civil administration who identified himself as Hamoudeh. The order applies only to Palestinians, not to people with Israeli IDs. When Abu Haykal asked why the order had been issued, Hamoudeh said it was because the military anticipates that there could be problems in the area in the coming months. When Abu Haykal objected that the back way in and out of his home wasn’t suitable for everyday use by the family, which includes an elderly woman and another woman with heart problems as well as several children, the officer looked at the pathway and pronounced it “not bad,” according to Abu Haykal.

The issuing of the order closing the street to Hani Abu Haykal and his family follows by roughly three weeks an incident in which Hani and his son Jamil, 13, were attacked and beaten by a solider and approximately 20 settlers as they tried to enter their front gate on their return from the family’s shop in the nominaly Palestinian-controlled part of Al-Khalil (H1). The pair had already passed three Israeli checkpoints, but the soldier stationed in front of their house demanded to see his ID and then declared that he was not permitted to enter his own gate. Hani explained that he had an order from the Israeli High Court guaranteeing him the right to use the street to reach his house, but the soldier refused to listen, pointed his gun at the pair, and cocked it. Meanwhile, settlers gathered in the street and began throwing stones. Abu Haykal and his son were forced by the soldier to turn around and travel back down the street through the crowd of stone-throwing settlers and walk approximately a quarter mile around the Tel Rumeida hill to the path leading to the back entrance of their home.

Human rights workers live just down the street from the Abu Haykal house but are not permitted to use the road either. Instead, they must use the same roundabout way to visit the family.

Abu Haykal also reported that the family has been trying to get a new phone line installed in their home, but has been unable to to get permission for a worker from the phone company to visit the house to do the installation.

In another ominous development Hani Abu Haykal said that soldiers recently visited shopkeepers in the Baab al-Zawiyye business district, in H1 near the Checkpoint 56 entrance to Tel Rumeida district. After checking their IDs, the soldiers reportedly told the shopkeepers that their shops might be shut down and the area declared a closed military zone in the future.

Abu Haykal’s mother has a heart condition and was seriously ill recently. As Palestinian vehicles, including ambulances, are not allowed into Tel Rumeida, Abu Haykal had to negotiate for two days with the Red Cross and the DCO (District Command Office of the military) to allow an ambulance into Tel Rumeida to pick up his sick mother. When permission was finally given, the ambulance was held up at a checkpoint near the Beit Romano settlement for seven hours because soldiers insisted that the ambulance must wait until an army Jeep could escort it into Tel Rumeida.

When the ambulance finally arrived at the Abu Haykal house, soldiers insisted that they needed to examine it. They removed all of the equipment from the ambulance and checked under the hood. This took half an hour. As Abu Haykal’s mother was carried from the house into the ambulance, settlers began throwing rocks. Soldiers did nothing to stop them.

Abu Haykal’s mother was so ill at this point that she was kept in the intensive care unit for five days and ten days total in the hospital.

After she was released from the hospital, the ambulance waited for five hours at the roadblock leading into Tel Rumeida for soldiers to let it in.

The family complains of isolation because their friends and family are too afraid to visit them. This is especially distressing for the children when it is their birthday.

When school is in session, Abu Haykal leaves work to walk his kids home in order to protect them from settler attacks. On Saturday, the Jewish sabbath, when many settlers are out on the street, the Abu Haykal children go directly from their school to their father’s work and wait to go home until he is done because it is too dangerous to go home during the day.

Recently Abu Haykal’s car was set on fire by settlers. Witnesses said soldiers were present and did nothing to stop the torching of the car.

In the past, soldiers have told Abu Haykal that they are here only to protect settlers. This means they will not intervene if they see settlers attacking Palestinians. However, if they see Palestinians attacking settlers, they will shoot the Palestinians. In addition, soldiers have reported that soldiers and police do not have permission to shoot at or harm settlers, even if they are shooting at Palestinians.

Fourth of July in an Occupied Land

by Jill and Liz, Michigan Peace Team, July 6th

Several days ago, we emailed a reflection and analysis of a peaceful demonstration in Bil’in and some data that underscores the severity of the settlements in the West Bank. Another critical issue is the mushrooming of settlements in and around Jerusalem, specifically East Jerusalem, the traditionally and historically Palestinian neighborhoods, and in the Old City, which is considered to be part of East Jerusalem.

Reflecting on our experiences in Occupied Territory

A few days ago, on July 4th, we marked the 230th year of independence from British rule (and occupation) in the United States of America. Yet to observe this occasion from (Occupied) East Jerusalem and the West Bank causes us to question how we understand ‘independence’ and what would independence look like for the Palestinians? On the surface, life proceeds “as usual” people work and laugh and play, shop, cook, go home to their families, and visit friends.

But, from the vantage point of a rooftop balcony overlooking the Muslim Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem, we see a proliferation of Israeli flags. These mark the settlements which are proliferating in the Old City and throughout East Jerusalem are growing at an alarming rate. Looking at the landscape, we begin to recognize the architecture of occupation: large Israeli flags displayed in the Christian and Muslim Quarters of the Old City, road blocks and checkpoints for travel between adjacent cities (such as Jerusalem and Bethlehem or Ramallah), large tracts of empty space, demolished buildings. There is a military or police presence at nearly every turn.

Some background on Jerusalem

Historically, Jerusalem has been the capital of Palestine. It has served as both cultural and religious center for the three Abrahamic traditions Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Old City, encircled by 16th century walls, takes up less than one square kilometer of the greater Jerusalem area, which is currently 123 square km. In 1947, the UN-drafted partition of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state recommended that Jerusalem be designated an ‘international’ city. This recommendation was ultimately not accepted, and during the war of 1948, an estimated 70,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes in the western areas of Jerusalem, and at least 40 Palestinian villages in and around Jerusalem were destroyed.

The 1949 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Jordan divided Jerusalem into the Jordanian-controlled East and Israeli-controlled West, and shortly thereafter, the Israeli Prime Minister illegally declared West Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel [and in 1980, Israel formally annexed East Jerusalem and declared the entire city as the “eternal, undivided capital of Israel” – most embassies (including the US and UK) are still retained in Tel-Aviv in non-recognition of this illegal move]. Since the war of 1967, the state of Israel has been an occupying power in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. And since that time, the Israeli government has annexed Palestinian villages to the east of Jerusalem such as Sawahr eh Ash-Sharqiyeh, Al-Izzariyya (Bethany), Abu Dis and At-Tur and incorporated them into Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries. However, all Palestinians who reside within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem (“Jerusalemites”) are classified as forgein citizens with residency, and not as citizens of Israel. (Passia 2006, p. 324)

Israeli settlements in and around Jerusalem

“Under international law, East Jerusalem is an occupied territory, which means that the Fourth Geneva Convention is applicable and Israel has no claim to East Jerusalem by virtue of having taken control of it militarily.” (Passia 2006, p. 324)

Nevertheless, settlements have sprung up around, and more recently, IN East Jerusalem. In fact, “[m]ost of the largest settlements are located in the Jerusalem region. The ten most populated settlements house 59% of the total West Bank settler population. (p. 294) One of the most populous Israeli settlement is Ma’ale Adumin, which has nearly 30,000 residents, and is located within greater Jerusalem. While PASSIA reports that ”settlers comprise less than 10% of the total Israeli-Jewis h population,” the state of Israel has expropriated an estimated 79% of land in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (pp. 294, 297).

More recently, Israeli settlers have been moving into the Muslim and Christian Quarters of the Old City, including a site in the northeastern corner of the Old City. Such a settlement was first reported in May 2005, and on July 4, 2005, the Israeli Ministry of Housing and Construction “gave its provisional approval to move forward on a plan (Town Planning Scheme 9870) to construct a new Jewish settlement, in the Burj Al-Laqlaq area of the Old City’s Muslim Quarter, near Herod’s Gate.” (p. 337). Furthermore, on July 10, 2005, one year after the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s separation barrier illegal under international law, the Israeli cabinet approved a decision to complete the wall in and around East Jerusalem by the end of August (p. 337). In order to complete the barrier, land was confiscated from the towns of Sawahreh Ash-Sharqiyeh, Al-Izzariyya, Abu Dis and At-Tur.

Interconnections the Separation Barrier, Settlements, and Israeli Occupation

It has been noted time and again that the separation barrier is not about increasing security, but a land grab by the State of Israel. This barrier takes many forms: it exists as an 8-m high concrete wall, trenches, fences, razor wire and military-only roads. In addition, there is a 30-100 meter wide “buffer zone” east of the Wall with electrified fences, trenches, sensors and military patrol roads and some sections have armed sniper towers. The Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs has noted that,

“In June 2002 the Government of Israel decided to build the separation barrier to prevent the uncontrolled entry of Palestinians from the West Bank into Israel. In fact, the separation barrier is part of a strategy that aims to annex large parts of West Bank/Gaza Strip land while encircling Palestinian population centers. The barrier runs through some of the most fertile parts of the West Bank and has severely harmed agricultural activity, which is one of the main sources of income of many villages.” (Passia 2006, p. 298)

The costs of the occupation are high not only in economic, but also social, political and psychological. The ideological settlers are ruthless in their desire for making the entire State of Israel a Jewish-only state, and are often violent towards Palestinians physically and psychologically violent, by spitting, slapping or beating nearby Palestinians (especially those who stand up for the injustices against them), and also using verbal threats intended to intimidate. Many settlements are protected by a private police force, and when settlers walk through the Old City together, they are accompanied by armed guards. This is a measure of intimidation against Palestinians, but is also an indication of the deep insecurity felt by many settlers.

In conclusion, an October 6, 2005 article in the Israeli daily Ha’aretz reports:

“[A]ccording to a recent study by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies the separation [sic.] barrier also harms Jerusalem’s Jewish population in as far as ‘To a large extent, Jerusalem has changed from a central city providing service to more than a million people in the surrounding area to a peripheral town. It is a limited metropolitan area that serves only 20% of the residents it formerly did, most of them Jews.’ The report adds that ‘the barrier has a negative effect on life in the city and its surrounding area’ and in the long run may increase hostility and terrorism. ” (quoted in Passia 2006, p. 338)

Sources

  • Muller, Andreas. A Wall on the Green Line? Jerusalem and Beit Sahour: The Alternative Information Center, 2004.
  • Palestine and Palestinians Beit Sahour: Alternative Tourism Group, 2005.
  • Passia 2006. Jerusalem: Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, 2005.

Ancient Olive Tree Destroyed in Hebron

by Harry in Tel Rumeida

July 5th: A fire apparently set by Israeli settlers destroyed a large and obviously ancient olive tree in the Tel Rumeida section of Al-Khalil (Hebron) today. The tree, located about 100 meters west of “Abraham’s Well,” belonged to the Abu Ghalyoun family, according to a Palestinian fire fighter quoted by the International Middle East Media Center. The fire was reported in mid-morning to the municipal fire brigade, which dispatched a truck to the area, but the fire fighters were unable to get equipment directly to the burning tree [Palestinian vehicles are not allowed on the road in the Israeli-controlled H2 area under which Tel Rumeida falls]. They used pails of water to put out the flames in the grass surrounding the tree, preventing damage to other trees, but their efforts to extinguish the fire in the tree itself were not successful. Twenty four hours later, the fire continues to smoulder, and the targeted tree is almost completely destroyed.

While there is no conclusive proof that Israeli settlers started the fire, they have in the past set many other fires in the area – including one that burned two dunams last month – as part of their decades-long campaign to drive Palestinians out of the Tel Rumeida neighborhood.

Freedom Theater Expresses Condolences for Children Killed in Jenin

The Freedom Theatre wishes to express its condolences to the Nagnagiyya family for the death of their son Eid (16), who was murdered yesterday, 6 July, by the Israeli army in Jenin refugee camp. The Nagnagiyya family contributed their old house to The Freedom Theatre to host a computer centre. The family offered to renovate the house as a contribution to the children of Jenin. Eid’s brother was also killed during the Battle on Jenin in 2002.

The Freedom Theatre also wishes to express its condolences to the El Hannoun family for the death of their son Ammar (16), who was murdered in the same incident, yesterday, 6 July, by the Israeli army in Jenin refugee camp.

The attack of the Israeli army took place at a memorial tent where many people were expressing their condolences to the Qandil family for the death of their son Fida (22), who was killed by the Israeli army on Tuesday 4 July. Among the people in the tent was Zacharia Zubaidi, the leader of the Al-Aqsa Brigades. According to the army the force was intending to arrest him. The special forces acted in a crowded place, injuring 30 people and killing two children. Zacharia Zubaidi managed to flee the attempted assassination.

Beit Ummar and Halhul Pray for Justice – Israeli Army Kidnap Villager

by Ernesto in Beit Ummar

Today, Friday July 7th, 2006, at noon, over 300 farmers and residents of the Palestinian villages of Beit Ummar and Halhoul held Friday prayers together on their land that has been ravaged by Israeli bulldozers in the past week. International and Israeli supporters accompanied them in a non-violent march to the land in order to observe the activities of the military and the settlers, and support their struggle against the illegal expansion of the settlement Karme Tzur.

They demonstrators marched around the settlement on the land where trees and grape vines have been uprooted because of the construction of a new wall that will enclose the settlement, illegally annexing Palestinian land to it. The residents, mostly men and children, carried signs that said, “No to the Policy of Damaging Land and Human Beings” and other things. The Israeli soldiers attempted to stop the demonstration but eventually they passed.

The march and prayer were beautiful and non-violent, however armed settlers descended on the group and waved their rifles in the air as they called in reinforcements from the military. More military arrived and they lined the hill above the demonstrators as prayer services ended.

While the majority turned back to the village after prayers, the army prevented those who wanted to stay from being on their land. They were told that they were too close to the settlement.

Young kids threw stones at a light pole and then the soldiers began to shoot rubber bullets at the young kids. Eventually the soldiers shot many rubber bullets and tear gas grenades. One young man named Saqir Sadiq Abu Mariya, 35, was shot by a rubber bulet in the torso and taken away by an ambulance. Many people fled the scene because the gas was becoming unbearable.

At 7pm this evening, three jeeps entered the village shooting tear gas, rubber bullets, and sound grenades at people in the streets for about an hour. Keefeh Kamael Bahar, 20, was taken from his home and arrested during the raid of the village.

Non violent activist and organizer Musa Abu Mariya, 28, is still imprisoned by the Israeli military after being arrested when he lay down in front of an Israeli bulldozer tearing up Beit Omar lands on July 4th. Palestinians can be held without, any charges or access to a lawyer for eight days before being brought in front of a military judge who can prolong the period. According to a report by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), “Each month, hundreds of Palestinians were subjected to one degree or another of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment (ill-treatment), at the hands of the GSS (General Security Services) and bodies working on its behalf. ”

Please donate to the ISM legal fund so that we can offer legal support to these Non-Violent activists!